Rocks

Did You Know?
  • Earthworms are everywhere! An area the size of a football field can contain close to a million worms beneath its soil.
  • Do you enjoy the Winter Olympics? The sport of curling uses granite discs, and team members sweep the ice to move the disc towards a target area.
  • Sinkholes sometimes happen in areas that contain large amounts of limestone at the bedrock layer of soil. Limestone is easily eroded by water, and cities, and towns, and neighborhoods can contain undergrounds caverns where the limestone has worn away. These caverns are usually filled with water. Sometimes when the weather has been very dry, the water level may be low. With no water to help support the weight of the soil above it, the ground collapses and forms a sinkhole.
  • Soil scientists are called agronomists. Sandy beaches can come in a variety of colors. In Dyrholaey Iceland, there are beautiful black sand beaches made from igneous basalt rocks from Iceland’s many volcanoes.
  • Fireworks contain lots of minerals! The minerals are mixed into materials that can be ignited. Different minerals produce different colors of sparks and explosions in the night sky.
  • Quicksand is sand or gravel combined with a lot of water. Just the right amount of water added to sand can make it too fluid, and this makes it so that it cannot support weight. Quicksand is found on all continents except Antarctica. It can be found in many places in the United States, including Utah! There is also something called quickclay that is more dangerous than quicksand. Quickclay is made of soil in the form of clay and large amounts of water. Alaska has the most quickclay of any place the United States.
  • Almost all meteorites are igneous rocks.
  • The earth’s oldest rocks are metamorphic.
  • Metamorphic rocks weather more slowly than igneous or sedimentary rocks.
  • Many caves are created from water slowly, over thousands of years, dissolving the sedimentary rock called limestone.
  • Native grasses on prairies play an important role in preserving soil and protecting it from erosion.
  • Gemstones are minerals. There are about 130 different kinds of gemstones. Some of the rarest gemstones are rubes, diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires.
  • Diamonds are the hardest of minerals. They are, of course, used in jewelry. They also have many uses in industry and are used in many cutting and drilling tools.
  • Soil experts claim that good soil that farmers use to grow crops contain 50-300 worms per square yard. Soil that supports prairies or grasslands and also soil that supports woodlands contains 100-500 worms per square yard.
  • Most diamonds are mined from a type of rock called kimberlite.
  • Eclogite is an interesting rock. It contains more crystals and minerals than most other types of rocks. It is a rare rock.
  • The reason that marble is a favorite of sculptors is because it only contains one mineral. This mineral is called calcite. Most rocks contain two or more minerals. Because of its one-mineral composition, it is a very smooth rock which means that it is easy to carve and shape.
  • There are more than 4000 different minerals in the world. Minerals are the building blocks of rocks.
  • Quartz and felspar are the most common mineral on the earth’s surface. Ores are rocks that contain metals.
  • Ores are heated to high temperatures in a process called smelting. Smelting enables the metal to be removed from the rock. Important metals that are smelted from ore include zinc, lead, iron, copper, aluminum, and nickel. Utah is famous for its copper mining.
  • We eat minerals every day! The mineral potassium is found in potatoes and bananas. The mineral zinc is in beans and eggs. Magnesium is in spinach and avocados. Apatite is a mineral that is also called calcium phosphate and can be found in milk, yogurt, and cheese. Salt is a mineral. Salt adds flavor to many of the foods that we eat each day.
  • We get energy from rocks. Coal is considered to be a rock even though it comes from organic materials. It is a fossil fuel that is used to generate electricity.
  • Our beautiful Arches National Park in Utah has more than 2000 arches. The arches are made up of sedimentary rocks that have been weathered by wind, rain, water, and ice.
  • We need to ingest about 17 minerals each day to stay healthy.
  • We are all familiar with Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Landscape Arch in the park is the longest rock arch in the world.
  • About 20% of diamonds are used for jewelry. About 80% are used in industry to make such things as drills and other cutting tools.
  • Gold and platinum are minerals. Platinum is even more valuable than gold.
  • Granite is a rock that found in abundance throughout the world. Granite is usually made up of three minerals: quartz, feldspar, and mica.